The USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) farm typology was originally developed to classify farms into relatively homogeneous groups based on their gross farm sales, the primary occupation of their operators, and whether the farms are family farms. Nearly 15 years have passed since ERS first released its farm typology; in this report, we update it to reflect commodity price inflation and the shift of production to larger farms. We also make a technical change, switching the measure of farm size from gross farm sales to gross cash farm income (GCFI), the total revenue received by a farm business in a given year. After the price adjustment, small farms are defined as those with GCFI less than $350,000, up from the original $250,000 cutoff. To adjust for the upward shift in production, two groups are added to the typology for farms with GCFI of $1 million or more, and a midsize group is added for farms with GCFI between $350,000 and $999,999.

According to USDAs Economic Research Service (ERS), the national net farm income, a key indicator of U.S. farm well-being, is forecast at a record $121 billion in 2013, up 6% from last year, and about $3 billion above 2011s previous record. In addition to record net farm income, farm wealth is also at record levels. This book discusses the USDAs Economic Research Service (ERS), which originally developed a farm typology that has been used over the years extensively in ERS publications and USDA analyses to help clarify the distributional impacts of policy, market, and technological developments.

According to USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), the national net farm income, a key indicator of U.S. farm well-being, is forecast at a record $121 billion in 2013, up 6% from last year, and about $3 billion above 2011's previous record. In addition to record net farm income, farm wealth is also at record levels. This book discusses the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), which originally developed a farm typology that has been used over the years extensively in ERS publications and USDA analyses to help clarify the distributional impacts of policy, market, and technological developments.